Need clarification on the site rules:"If you become aware of cheating on site, review the guidelines for reporting cheating and either send a private message (a “PM”) to a moderator or post in the Cheaters forum. DO NOT make cheating accusations in public press, chat, or elsewhere in the forum."

Is an accusation of cheating in a country-country message acceptable? I ran into this today (in a conversation of 3 of the remaining 4 powers), and I was uncertain how to respond.

I eventually treated it as any other accusation of 'You allied with country x, you scum!', but I was unsure what the correct want to handle it would be. I figure it would be one of:1) A direct message to him (or a response to the thread) along the lines of "Lets not bring accusations of multi-accounting into this, if you have concerns visit the cheaters forms otherwise lets play as if everyone is above board"2) A post on the cheaters forum so someone uninvolved can deal with it3) Ignore it

I know that 2) is the correct response for anything posted in public press, but it is not clear what should be done with accusations sent as part of in-game inter-country messages.

If I'm not mistaken, accusations made in private comms between countries are acceptable, because it falls under the rubric of "anything goes" in private comms. It's the public pronouncements that become a matter of site conduct.

Just to add to what WHS said. A cheating allegation per se in a private message isn't againt the site rules. However, if that allegation is tied to a requirement to act a certain way otherwise you will report cheating, then that moves it into a breach of the rules. Bascally:

- any cheating allegation in the public domain (other than a formal post in Cheaters) is against the rules.- any cheatng allegation (public or private) threatening to "act a certain way unless" is against the rules.

So a private message allegation could be a breach of the rules if it is accompanied by a threatened consequence / attempt to use the allegation to influence the course of the game.

Thank you. My particular instance was getting uncomfortable close to the second category gareth mentioned, so it is good to know that my 'something feels off here' sensors are working. The conversation has moved on from that point but if it pivots back I'll make sure to raise a thread in Cheaters so it can be dealt with.